The Ideal Roles of the News Media in the Public Sphere

This 20-page paper intends to frame the debate about independent news media's roles as watch-dog, agenda-setter, and gate-keeper in a democratic public sphere. It suggests that, by fulfilling these roles, the media "maximises the opportunities for critical reflection and rational deliberation in the public sphere, for inclusive participation in communication processes, and ultimately for informed choice and human development in society." It was written to introduce the publication of workshop papers for a workshop on “The Role of the News Media in the Governance Reform Agenda", which was co-sponsored by the World Bank Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Boston, United States (US).


The paper introduces the context, including progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and 21st century reversals in democratisation since the so-called "third wave of democracy" after 1970, for examining the roles of independent media and its relationship to governance and human development. It examines information transmission channels, including new technology, and then outlines the normative framework and core concepts for guiding the 12 papers that constitute the report.


The democratic public sphere is defined for purposes of this discussion as: "that space between the state and the household where free and equal citizens come together to share information, to deliberate upon common concerns, and to cooperate and collaborate on social problems." Media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, books, pamphlets, the internet, and new technologies, can be the conduit for informed discourse as long as there is equal access. Media must be independent from state control, censorship, and legal restrictions, reflecting diverse social sectors, perspectives, interests, and political persuasions, with guaranteed civil liberties and diverse ownership and facilitation. This national democratic public sphere is illustrated as a discussion cycle of public opinion that includes the following three stages: issue-based information flows; issue-based public contestation; and public debate and deliberation. The constitutive elements of these include free, plural, and independent public communication systems; civil liberties; a robust civil society; and equal access to the public sphere.


The paper then sets out the ideal roles of media in an ideal democratic public sphere. First it reviews journalistic roles as identified by research on journalists on both the individual and collective levels. It reports that "news professionals perceive themselves as serving multiple functions and roles, for instance in the priority they give to providing background analysis and interpretation of events, to facilitating public debate and expression, and to delivering timely factual coverage of events." Debates on journalistic impartiality, adversity towards power, serving the public interest, and focusing on culture and entertainment are discussed. As stated here, the classification of journalistic roles has been "only weakly related to ... broader normative or prescriptive theories about democratic governance and human development". Thus, this report analyses the roles of journalists as watch-dogs, agenda-setters, and gate-keepers. These roles are defined and factors influencing journalists are discussed and charted as: the state as provider of a constitutional and legal framework for their work; the markets as the economic structure, including regulation and media ownership; and the profession, including training, accrediting bodies, and national cultures. The introductory paper concludes with a roadmap of the rest of the reports contained in the document “The Role of the News Media in the Governance Agenda", available in its entirety in PDF format here.